Earlier, Mykola Kniazhytskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from the European Solidarity party, confirmed that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the scandalous anti-church law No. 3894, aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was adopted, among other things, in order to take away churches from the UOC. Knyazhytsky believes that since not all settlements in Ukraine have churches of the OCU, people may not realize that their “priests have ties to Moscow.” Thus, the law banning the UOC is aimed at correcting this.
DESS still does not know the number of religious organizations “affiliated with the ROC”
The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) still does not have reliable information on how many religious organizations in Ukraine have signs of “affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.” The State Service claims that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the National Agency for Combating Corruption are preventing officials from starting the process of registering such legal entities and, as a result, implementing the provisions of anti-church law No. 3894. This was reported by the Glavkom publication.
According to the response to the journalistic inquiry of the publication, it became known that: “Prior to the adoption of Law No. 3894, the State Department of Economic and Social Services had no legal basis for identifying religious organizations registered in Ukraine that are affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church and, accordingly, could not keep their records. Consequently, the State Department of Economic and Social Studies does not have information on the number of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church that operated in Ukraine until August 20, 2024.”
At the same time, the head of the State Department of Economic and Social Services, Viktor Yelensky, drew attention to the bureaucracy in the process, which, in his opinion, was artificially created by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the National Agency for Combating Corruption.
“All regulations to be adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers have passed interagency coordination, expertise of the Ministry of Justice, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) and will be adopted. But the process is being slowed down by a single legal act that is still being approved, which concerns property. This is a corruption-prone topic that causes NAPC’s comments. We are talking about a clear list of grounds on which religious property cannot be transferred,” — Yelenskyy said.
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